Cong demands sacking of Rijiju over alleged power project scam

New Delhi, Dec 13 (PTI) Congress today demanded the sacking of Union Minister Kiren Rijiju alleging his "involvement" in the Rs 450-crore Arunachal power scam and said the Prime Ministers "tall claims" of bringing transparency have "fallen flat".

Stating that Rijijus role in the matter is under cloud, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also released an audio tape of a purported conversation of his cousin, a contractor in the 600 MW power project, and Rijijus letter recommending that held up payments be released.

"The role of Kiren Rijiju in this issue is under cloud. Kiren Rijiju has no right to stay in office. He should either be dismissed by the Prime Minister or asked to resign till an independent probe is complete," he told reporters.

Surjewala trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying his "tall claims" of bringing transparency have "fallen flat" as had happened with several other scandals in the past including Vyapam, Lalitgate and the Vijay Mallya issue.

"Mr Modis claims of transparency ad honesty is now under question. People of India are looking at what action he takes on this issue," he said.

Payments were stopped after a letter by the Chief Vigilance Officer of North East Power Corporation (NEPCO), who conducted a probe into the issue, the Congress spokesperson said and alleged that there is a scam to the extent of Rs 450 crore in the form of false and inflated transportation bills by Goboi Rijiju, who is said to be a relative of Kiren Rijiju.

"This is a very serious issue. The Prime Minister should speak out on this issue....

"If PM has courage of conviction, he must either sack Kiren Rijiju or ask him to resign and conduct a fair and free probe so that truth comes out...Till then, Rijiju should be divested of his post." "The Prime in the run up to elections used to say that he will neither do or allow corruption to happen. But there have been a series of charges of corruption that came to light in the Modi government, be it scams in Rajasthan mining, Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh or Lalit Modi or Vijay Mallya," he said. Targeting the CBI, Surjewala alleged that the premier investigation agency has become a "puppet" in the hands of the Modi government and has not even registered an FIR in the matter despite a 128-page report by the vigilance officer. Surjewala also played out a purported audio conversation between Goboi and the NEPCO Chief Vigilance Officer Satish Verma and the opposition party claimed it also had a mention of the goings on that led to pulling down of the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh. He claimed Rijijus brother was clearly attempting to influence the CVO in the 28-minute tape and was using his Minister brothers name to seek his help in getting the bills cleared and was also enticing him with a promotion. "There seems to be a connection with making of these payments and were some of these payments used to buy and sell legislators is a matter that needs to be seriously probed," he said. Alleging that "inflated" bills were put up for bringing boulders for the dam construction, he said some of the huge boulders were shown to be carried on scooters, motorcyles and cars by a single driver at the same time.

Rijiju today denied allegations of wrongdoing. PTI SPG/SKC RT

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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